Wednesday, March 31, 2004

CRN : Breaking News : Red Hat CEO Backtracks On Channel Plans; SMB Channel Program Stalled : 11:38 AM EST Tues., Mar. 30, 2004: "Noting that Red Hat now has almost $1 billion in the bank after 11 years in business, Szulik said his company has been able to finally get 'a little traction' and post profits due to a subscription licensing model in which the technology and services are delivered together.
Before a handful of programmers gathered at the MIT Hotel for the Boston stop of the Red Hat-HP World Tour, Szulik slammed Novell's attempts to become an open-source company.
'We have a new competitor, absolutely, and we think that's good' Szulik said. '[Novell has] historically been a proprietary software company [now] claiming to be open source. Only time will tell [if that business model will work].' "

In contrast to, say, a historically open source company that now looks increasingly proprietary...